But the best thing about the whole morning was your guide Deborah. She is charming, friendly, erudite, and a real credit to you. We listened to her intently throughout, she held our attention, surprised us, interacted with us, answered all our questions, and made the morning very special. We would have missed so much without her. We all think we would like to meet her again and when we come back to Rome we would hope to do so.

Advance booking of Vatican tickets - how does it work and what do I need to know?

Ticket or tour?

Alongside our hugely popular Vatican tours, tickitaly also sell 'direct entry' tickets to the Vatican - arrive with your ticket voucher, avoid the long queues and then feel free to wander wherever and however you like. You may prefer this degree of independence, opting to, let's say, make straight for the Sistine Chapel and see little else, or just take the time to linger wherever you fancy.

Alternatively, you may prefer to have this vast storehouse of treasures and wonders explained and unfurled in a structured and experienced fashion - if so, then choose a Vatican guided tour.

OK, I want a ticket - what is covered?

The tickets allow priority 'skip-the-queue' access to the Sistine Chapel and the numerous Vatican Museums, and you may stay for as little or as long a time as you wish - Vatican opening hours permitting. Once you have finished your visit to the museums and the Sistine Chapel you're free to visit St Peters. You may visit as many of the rooms, buildings or museums featured on our Vatican information page as you wish.

Please note that tickets do not cover admittance to the dome ('cupola') of St Peters. This cannot be pre-booked - you may opt to pay 'on site' and there are two differently-priced options, one price for ascending in the lift, another for ascending via the stairs - all 551 of them! Again, this is the dome only - the rest of St Peters is covered by our tickets.

Do I really need to book in advance?

You've quite wisely decided to investigate advance booking for your visit to the Vatican - each passing year sees longer and longer queues full of people who've decided to leave things until they're in Rome. If you're visiting in low season, ok, get there at the right time and there may be little or no queueing ... in high season, well, bring sun hats, water, a good book and lots and lots of patience.

Queues on the day can be enormous, with hours spent just waiting and wasting your precious time; with our system you can just roll up at the Vatican, join the special queue for those that have booked, present your voucher, and you're in.

Payment and timing.

To reserve tickets for the Vatican, just fill out the booking form, supply us with credit card details, and we'll do the rest. There will be no charge whatsoever until we confirm your reservation, at which point you'll be sent a login link from where you may print out your entrance vouchers.

It is only possible to confirm bookings up to sixty days in advance, but we can take bookings until the end of the year and place them on hold for you. Availability is never as great as we'd like, so do try to book as early as you possibly can! Do remember that bookings cannot be made for Sundays, and that dates are in European dd/mm/yyyy format! There are also numerous 'closing days' throughout the year, but these are blocked on the calendar.

Are these 'skip the queue' tickets?

Yes, they are, although they unfortunately don't allow priority entrance to St Peters*. Doing things 'last minute' is risky when it comes to the Vatican, but it's not just avoiding the 'fully booked' email that makes pre-booking so advisable, it's also the 'skip the queue on the day' advantage. All those that have pre-booked tickets have dedicated entrances. That said, recent years have seen an incredible surge in bookings for the Vatican, and a less-than-perfectly-organised administration has seen some small amount of queueing necessary in peak season. There is simply nothing that can be done about this, and if you find someone claiming to be able to bypass this, then they're being disingenuous, to put it mildly.

* Please note that as St Peters is a church you do not need a ticket to enter and you can visit at any time during its opening hours, although you may have to queue depending on the number of visitors. If you want to skip the queues, we offer these tours.

Anything else?

Almost certainly. For some important information (dress code, disabled access and the like) see the 'Vatican visitor information' tab above. We also have a full Vatican FAQ page as well as some visitor information for the various sites that make up the Vatican City.

Payment and pricing.

The Vatican is, literally, another country, with very much their own way of doing business. At all times we will refer to the full price of your ticket(s), and you will never be charged more than this ... just please be aware that the total charge includes our handling fee (€6.50 per ticket and €11.00 per ticket for guided tours) and that this will not show on the actual voucher. You will arrive with a paid-in-full voucher.

* Please note that as St Peters is a church you do not need a ticket to enter and you can visit at any time during its opening hours, although you may have to queue depending on the number of visitors. If you want to skip the queues, we offer these tours.

Are there any types of reduced tickets?

Children under 6 years of age pay nothing at all, those between the ages of 6 and 18 are entitled to reduced priced tickets, as are students under 26 years of age (valid student ID required). The Vatican will not allow ANY change of ticket types once an order is placed, so please be sure that you do qualify for reduced tickets and are able to demonstrate as much on the day of your visit. Tickets ordered in error cannot be refunded. Please note also that under-18's are only allowed entrance as part of a group containing at least one person over the age of 18.

How do I receive my tickets, how do I get into the Vatican?

If there is availability for the date you have chosen then we shall charge your credit card and instantly send you an email containing a link to a page from where you'll be able to print out your voucher. The voucher will be in Adobe PDF format - download the viewer here if you need it. You may also view PDF's with this software - a much smaller download than Adobe's own reader.

On the day of your visit you will join the special 'pre-booked' queue located to the right hand side of the main entrance. You will need to present your voucher and some ID (passport is always best); next you'll need to pass security - everyone has to go through the metal detectors - and then you'll swap your voucher for entrance tickets. Please note that vouchers can only be used for the date and time specified and are not refundable.IMPORTANT: please note that any modifications, removals or additions to your Vatican voucher will render it INVALID.

Important information for visiting the Vatican.

Opening times.

Hours for the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are from 8.30 in the morning until 6.00 in the evening (08.30 - 18.00), with the last entrance at 3.00 in the afternoon (15.00). We would ask you to specify whether you prefer morning or afternoon tickets, or indeed that you'd be happy with any time on your day of choice. Your chances are greater if you select 'Morning or afternoon', but if you'd rather a bit more precision then we would, for now, always recommend the afternoon.

To be clear, your booking will eventually be confirmed for a specific time of day and we're simply asking whether you'd prefer that to be in the morning, afternoon, or at any time of day. There is no way to, for example, select 'morning' and then arrive whenever you choose to - all visits are tied to a specific time.

We have to turn down far, far more orders than we'd like to, and, given a limited availability, your chances are higher if you're prepared to be flexible.

Dress code, security and disabled access.

You'll need to be wearing clothes that do not leave your shoulders/arms or lower legs bare. No shorts, short trousers, short skirts, sleeveless shirts or bare shoulders. All visitors to the Vatican Museums will be required to pass through a metal-detector prior to being granted admittance. Wheelchairs are available onsite and do not need to be reserved. Finally, please be sure to bring some ID with you (passport is always best) on the day of your visit.

Bags, backpacks and umbrellas.

The cloakroom staff will accept all sorts of bags and personal belongings, regardless of size or shape, with the exception of clothes, hats and compact umbrellas.

It is obligatory to deposit the following items in the cloakroom:

Suitcases, backpacks and containers larger than 40 x 35 x 15 cm

Bags and backpacks that jut out by more than 15 cm from the body

Medium to large umbrellas, any umbrella with a spike, walking sticks (unless necessary due to disablement), tripods for cameras and video cameras, signs of any kind

Knives, scissors, tools and any items that could be used to harm people or damage works of art

It is forbidden to enter the Vatican with firearms or any kind of weapon.

Queueing.

The visitor management aspect of the Vatican attractions is not like other Italian museums, and it is for this reason alone that we CANNOT GUARANTEE that there will be no queuing whatsoever prior to presenting your voucher. We can say that off-season you're pretty much certain to be able to walk straight in. We can say that if you opt for an afternoon visit, the chances are you may have to wait a couple of minutes, perhaps not even that. What we cannot say is that there will be no need to queue should you opt for a morning visit, or a visit on Saturday, especially in peak season.

However, if you do find yourselves queuing, the average wait is 15 to 20 minutes, and it is very rare that you'll need to wait for more than 30 minutes. We cannot stress enough that this is totally outwith our control, that it affects ALL visitors to the Vatican, and it is not something we can predict - the Vatican makes arbitrary, last minute decisions, and never gives any notice. There is simply no way around this issue, but, again, it doesn't affect all visitors, and is of limited impact when it does. We would always recommend that you arrive at the Vatican a good 30 minutes before the time on your voucher.